"Jordan Mechner wasn't working on Warrior Within?!" a friend of mine had asked me the other day at the game shop, as I was trying to work my Ford Ranger home through the frozen tundra that is Colorado winter season. I shook my head. "Nah, he took off after Sands of Time to work on something. The movie script, something like that." With that, my friend just shrugged. "Boy, no wonder I didn't feel the magic."

And I decided to re-play the game for a little bit. It seems that I found it to my liking, despite the fact that the tempo had changed from the awesome Sands of Time game from the year before. I slapped it with a four out of five rating and considered it a quality sequel, although the outcry from fans told a different story. One of disappointment on almost every corner, really. Maybe Mechner's departure actually meant something to these guys, and affected their approach. Well, anyway, I still liked it, and was interested in seeing how the final chapter, Two Thrones, would shape up.

And so it's here, and, strangely enough, it's only here that I can really get an idea of what these fans were talking about in terms of what was missing. While the action was just as graceful and the new additions pretty sweet, you could tell that something was amidst in terms of the storytelling and, in some cases, the delivery. Two Thrones happily delivers back on terms with these two things, and comes across as almost a good a game as Sands of Time. If it wasn't for that one Dark thing that comes into the picture...

More on that in a second. Anyway, the game follows the Prince after his completed adventure from Warrior Within, returning to the kingdom of Babylon with Kileena, the Empress of Time. But their return is soon loaded with disappointment when they find it ravaged by strongmen. Their ship is destroyed, and soon Kileena ends up in their custody, leading the Prince to attempt a daring rescue. It's during this, following some captivating gameplay through the war-torn Babylon, that the Prince discovers that the evil vizier from the first game is up to his old tricks, and has once again turned to the Sands of Time for chaos. This time, however, they have a much more drastic effect on the Prince himself, and he's soon given a new alter ego with more destructive plans.

And so, about a little bit into the beginning, you see this effect take place. This comes in the form of a Dark Prince, the darker side of your character who wields a chain whip of sorts and has a much more shadowy appearance. While the good Prince has plans to save his precious city, the Dark Prince has his own agenda, which unfolds during his segments of the game.

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